The present invention relates to the field of computer networks. In particular, the present invention relates to software for managing enterprise networks and for assisting the users thereof.
The expense of managing an enterprise network can be staggering. Enterprise networks, as described in Sheldon, The Encyclopedia of Networking, Osbourne/McGraw-Hill (1998), the contents of which are incorporated by reference into the present application, are generally both local and wide area in scope, and serve to connect the departmental or workgroup networks of an organization into an intracompany network with the potential for allowing computer users in a company to access any data or computing resource. According to one statistic appearing on the World Wide Web site of Network Associates, Inc, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference as of the filing date of the present application, the average five year cost of provisioning and maintaining a networked personal computer is more than $65,000.
FIG. 1 shows a diagram of an enterprise network 100 in which one or more service personnel 102a, 102b, etc., provision and maintain the hardware and software therein and assist users with problems as they arise, and which is amenable to a system and method for integrated network management applications in accordance with the preferred embodiments. It is to be understood that the term service personnel as used herein generally refers to any person involved in the provisioning, maintenance, or user assistance associated with the enterprise network 100, such persons having any of a variety of titles including, but not limited to, system administrator, computer technician, software engineer, network engineer, help desk engineer, help desk clerk, or other titles.
Enterprise network 100 comprises a plurality of local area networks 104, 106, 108, and 110. Local area network 104 may correspond, for example, to a finance department of a corporation, while local area network 106 may correspond, for example, to an engineering department. Local area network 108 may correspond, for example, to an off-site marketing department that is coupled to the remainder of the enterprise network 100 through the Internet 112 and gateway devices 114 and 116, respectively. Finally, local area network 110 is shown in FIG. 1 as corresponding to the system administration department of a corporation, containing equipment and personnel for provisioning, maintaining, and assisting users on the enterprise network 100. It is to be appreciated that the enterprise network 100 represents only one sample of a virtually unlimited number of configurations of enterprise networks amenable to the preferred embodiments described herein.
As shown in FIG. 1, local area network 104 is a token ring network to which is coupled user computers 118 and 120, local area network 106 is an Ethernet network to which is coupled user computers 122, 124, and 126, and a file server 127, and local area network 108 is an Ethernet network to which is coupled user computers 128 and 130. Local area networks 104 and 106 are coupled to the remainder of the enterprise network through routers 132 and 134, respectively.
Various network management tools have been made available to assist the service personnel 102a, 102b, etc. in provisioning, maintaining, and assisting users in the enterprise network environment. As a first example, help desk tools have become available for assistance in resolving, recording, and tracking user troubles. As a second example, administration tools have become available for assisting in the tracking and management of hardware inventory, software inventory and distribution, software metering, and menuing. Finally, as a third example, network visibility tools have become available for assistance in analyzing, monitoring, and troubleshooting data communications problems.
Local area network 110 is an Ethernet network to which is coupled computer systems and other hardware for provisioning, maintaining, and assisting users on the enterprise network 100. In particular, a help desk server 136, an administration server 138, a network visibility server 140, a network visibility console 142, and help desk terminals 144 and 146 are coupled to local area network 110. Network visibility agent computers 148, 150, and 152 are coupled to the local area networks 104, 106, and 108, respectively, for gathering network visibility data and communicating this data to network visibility server 140. As indicated supra, the enterprise network 100 represents only one sample of a virtually unlimited number of configurations of enterprise networks, and it is not required that the above network management computer systems be coupled to a single local area network. For example, the help desk server 136 or the administration server 138 could just as well be connected to local area networks 104, 106, or other local area networks (not shown) of the enterprise network 100 without departing from the scope of the preferred embodiments. Furthermore, the network visibility agent computers 148, 150, and 152 may not be required to be separate computers but may rather correspond to applications loaded onto one or more of the user computers, e.g., where the local user is a local system administrator. Thus, there may be a virtually unlimited number of configurations of the enterprise network 100, help desk devices 136, 144, and 146, administration server 138, and network visibility devices 140, 142, 148, 150, and 152 that are possible and that are amenable to a system and method for integrated network management applications in accordance with the preferred embodiments described infra, provided that there is a requirement for service personnel 102a and 102b and for applications for providing assistance in help desk, administration, and network visibility functionalities.
An exemplary help desk tool for use by the service personnel 102a, 102b, etc. is McAfee HelpDesk(trademark), currently available from Network Associates, Inc. As described in the McAfee HelpDesk user manual for v. 3.50, Mar. 31, 1998, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference, McAfee HelpDesk(trademark) comprises a Help Desk Client for loading onto help desk computers 144 and 146, a Help Desk Database Administrator for loading onto help desk server 136, and other optional components for providing help desk functionality. McAfee HelpDesk helps to automate the process of entering caller information, e.g. when the service person enter a caller""s name, for example, all other relevant fields are filled in automatically. Important information about the caller is also displayed automatically. If a caller has open trouble tickets, a pop-up window advising of this is shown at the outset. McAfee HelpDesk is fully integrated with industry standard problem resolution technologies, such as Inference Corporation""s case-based reasoning engine and knowledge-base tools. A White Board feature allows easy management of widespread problems by posting the problem on a white board. When users call with that problem, a click on the white board generates a trouble ticket for that user. There is no need to manually log multiple tickets. When the problem is resolved, all linked trouble tickets are closed automatically. Detailed reports then help the service personnel measure the true impact of the problem.
An exemplary administration tool for use by the service personnel 102a, 102b, etc. is McAfee Zero Administration Client (ZAC) Suite(trademark), which is currently available from Network Associates, Inc. As described at the Network Associates World Wide Web Site and in the McAfee ZAC Suite(trademark) user manual for v. 6.21, Jun. 26, 1998, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference, McAfee ZAC Suite(trademark) loads onto administration server 138 and provides tools for hardware and software inventory, software distribution, configuration, menuing, and locking down of desktops across the enterprise network, metering of software usage, and generation of reports on these tasks. The ZAC Suite may be run from a dedicated console computer or from another terminal such as help desk terminals 144 or 146 that are logged into the administration server 138. ZAC Suite also provides Remote Desktop Control functionality that allows viewing, controlling, and communication with user computers 118-130 over the enterprise network 100.
An exemplary network visibility tool for use by the service personnel 102a, 102b, etc. is the Distributed Sniffer System(copyright) and its associated console application Sniff master(copyright) for Windows, currently available from Network Associates, Inc. As described in the associated users manuals for the current versions of Distributed Sniffer System(copyright), Distributed Sniffer Pro(copyright), and Sniff master(copyright) for Windows, (hereinafter referred to as network visibility software), the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference, network visibility software loads onto network visibility server 140 and also comprises remote agents that are loaded onto the network visibility agent computers 148, 150, and 152. Network visibility software compiles and displays information on network activity from the data-collecting network visibility agents 148, 150, and 152. Service personnel can access this information through a Windows-based application or other interface. Network visibility software provides flexible access to information from both local and remote client/server networks, providing a central control point from which to manage traffic on distributed networks. Network visibility software assists in explaining possible causes for network problems, collects expert analysis data automatically based on user-specified time intervals and data parameters, learns network configurations continuously, shows breakdown of network protocol activity automatically, displays network errors, frame size, and station statistics for specified stations, enables creation and generation of management reports, consolidates information from remote sites at a central location, points out problems proactively by communicating alarms to a central location, displays multiple windows concurrently allowing the service person to view prioritized alarms, global statistics, traffic statistics, and expert analysis information from one or several servers simultaneously. On the network visibility console 142, network visibility software consolidates and displays network intelligence from the distributed network visibility agents 148, 150, and 152, providing a central point of control for the enterprise network 100.
FIG. 2 shows a flowchart related to a problem that may occur in systems according to the prior art when a service person using the help desk software package requires fast and easy access to the network visibility software. At step 204, the service person opens a help desk ticket using the help desk application software described supra. At step 206, using troubleshooting techniques, using a prescription by an expert system associated with the help desk software, or using other means, the service person determines whether the problem is related to network visibility (e.g. traffic congestion problem, timeouts, nodes unreachable, or any other problem related to network visibility). If not associated with network visibility, the problem is resolved with assistance from the help desk software, administrative software, or other software as necessary at step 208 and the trouble ticket is closed at step 210.
If the problem is related to network visibility software, it is then determined whether the service person has access to a network visibility console application at their current computer terminal. If the network visibility console application is not available to the service person, the inconvenient task at step 214 must be undertaken, in which the service person must physically locate a computer terminal having a network visibility console application installed, or must install the network visibility console package. Following this step, the network visibility console application is instantiated at step 216. After these steps are performed, the problem may be resolved at step 218 and the trouble ticket closed at step 220.
The prior art example of FIG. 2 represents an inconvenience to the service person in the event that the network visibility console application is not available at their current computer terminal. This may be the case for several reasons. For example, the service person may have traveled over to the troubled workstation of the end user, which generally will not have the network visibility console application loaded. Even if the service person is at their own terminal, they may not have the network visibility console package loaded on their own terminal for hard disk space reasons, licensing reasons, or other reasons. Moreover, even if the network visibility console package is present, the launching of a separate set of software routines into computer memory at step 216 other than the help desk and/or administration software represents an additional source of delay depending on the capabilities of the current terminal.
Other shortcomings with prior art network management software includes need to constantly upgrade the help desk terminals 144 and 146 as new help desk, administration, and/or network visibility console software becomes available. Additionally, the installation of the new help desk, administration, and/or network visibility console software takes up valuable room on the hard drives of these machines.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a computer program product that allows service personnel to seamlessly access and manipulate administration data, help desk data, and network visibility data from any user workstation on an enterprise network without requiring the presence of resident network management software on the user workstation.
It would be further desirable to provide a computer program product that allows each service person in an organization to have a customized service desk interface that may be launched at any user workstation on the enterprise network.
It would be still further desirable to provide a computer program product that allows for easy customization of the service desk interface by the service person, and that allows for easy linking of new network management applications to the service desk interface as the new network management applications become available for use.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment, a computer program product is provided for assisting a service person in managing an enterprise network, wherein a browser-based help desk window may be invoked by the service person at any user computer on the enterprise network that is equipped with a web browser. The browser-based help desk window is customizable to each service person, allowing the service person to embed a network visibility link on an application launch toolbar contained in the browser-based help desk window. The service person may then subsequently log into a help desk server from any user computer equipped with a browser, and then launch a browser-based network visibility session upon activation of the embedded network visibility link.
In a preferred embodiment, the browser-based help desk window comprises a plurality of trouble information fields for entering data related to client trouble calls, along with an application toolbar for displaying application launch buttons. The user is permitted to embed the network visibility link onto the application toolbar using menu selection and drag-and-drop commands. During the customization process, additional application launch buttons associated with other network management applications and/or servers may be embedded into the application toolbar, including an administration software launch button, a remote control launch button, and a knowledge base application launch button.